Monitoring Trends and Accuracy of Self-Efficacy Beliefs during Interventions: Advantages and Potential Applications to School-Based Settings

Cleary, Timothy J.

Psychology in the Schools, v46 n2 p154-171 Feb 2009

Self-efficacy measures are context-specific assessment tools designed to evaluate students' perceptions of capability to attain specific outcomes on particular tasks. These measures are important because they possess several desirable features typical of progress-monitoring tools (i.e., context specific, free of reactive effects, strong psychometric properties), have been shown to be strong predictors of motivated and self-regulatory behaviors, and possess many advantages relative to more global self-report scales of motivation. In this article, a general framework for using these scales as a supplemental assessment tool to behavioral or skill-based assessments will be presented and discussed. The key focus of this article involves illustrating how practitioners can evaluate and interpret the trends in students' self-efficacy judgments as well as the accuracy of these judgments during the implementation and evaluation of academic interventions. (Contains 3 figures and 1 table.)